Johnny Griffin-Eddie Lockjaw Davis "Complete Sessions"

[Gheorghe]

This year I have heard several 2-tenor units here in Viena and some tunes were originally recorded by the Griffin-Davis-tandem. It´s strange but I didn´t have no record with that formation and was glad to find this 4 CD collection with all the sessions. I think the original label was "jazzland" . There is also the live at Minton´s included, and the "Lookin´ at Monk". 
Now I have listened to the first 3 CDs and the first 2 tracks of CD 4 and can share some of my impressions:

I´ve always been fascinated by those two. Johnny Griffin, when he lived in Europe, was the first great American star musician I heard. And at the beautiful club "Jazzland" here in Viena I attended many many nights when Eddie Lockjaw Davis was playing. 

I even have "closed" circles somehow when I saw Johnny Griffin the last time shorthly before he died. This last time was also the first and only time, that my wife and my son saw and heard him. 

I love their collection of tunes and their unique sound and phrasing, even for not so experienced jazz listeners I think they are among those you might recognize most easily in a blindfold test. 

Personal favourites on those collections would be the wonderful "Hey Lock" based on Body and Soul in the A-sections and an 8 bar B section with descending chords similar to "Lover". 

And two versions of "In Walked Bud" ! 

The rhythm section is Junior Mance, Larry Gales and Ben Riley who later became long time members of Monk´s quartet. 

Maybe on some occasions the recording quality is not very good. The horns are captured very well, but the bass sounds weak in the mix, and from the drums you don´t hear the cymbals well. The piano sounds a bit tinny even on the studio records. Even if recording tehnologies in the 60´s were not up to now, but BN or Impulse had better recording sounds. 

One word about Junior Mance . I don´t think I have much from him, I think he is on an early Lester Young thing where he sounds almost like Bud. 
He has a lot of tehnique, almost like an Oscar Peterson, but at least for my taste he sometimes get´s too "funky" especially on Monk tunes like Epistrophy, were it´s a bit exagerated. But he is a helluva pianist, period. 

 

 

[Brad]

This is one of those gray market releases, not based on the original tapes. According to Discogs, it’s a mixture of Jazzland and Prestige: 

Tough Tenors

Griff and Lock

The Tenor Scene

Live the First Set

Live the Midnight Show

Live the Late Show

Looking at Monk

Blues Up and Down

This one is good, sort of in the same vein: 

Johnny Griffin and Eddie Lockjaw Davis Quitent – At Onkel Po’s Carnegie Hall – NDR Info (N 77046)

Not Davis and Griffin but Davis and Shirley Scott but Craft is issuing this next year:

https://craftrecordings.com/collections/eddie-lockjaw-davis/products/eddie-lockjaw-davis-cookin-with-jaws-and-the-queen-the-legendary-prestige-cookbook-albums-4-cd

[JSngry]

They also did an MPS session.

and oh, by the way:

[colinmce]

Wow, love the Craft box. Non-Miles/Coltrane/Art Pepper/whatever else has been reissued ad nauseum, on CD with original artwork in 2023 ... a bit of hope remains!

I would love to see something similar for Booker Ervin and Charles McPherson.

[mikeweil]

3 hours ago, Brad said:

This is one of those gray market releases, not based on the original tapes. According to Discogs, it’s a mixture of Jazzland and Prestige

That is because Griffin was under contract with Riverside at the time, and Davis with Prestige. 

3 hours ago, Brad said:

Not Davis and Griffin but Davis and Shirley Scott but Craft is issuing this next year:

https://craftrecordings.com/collections/eddie-lockjaw-davis/products/eddie-lockjaw-davis-cookin-with-jaws-and-the-queen-the-legendary-prestige-cookbook-albums-4-cd

Davis helped a lot to start Scott's career. They first recorded for King in 1956, then for Roulette and Roost. They did a lot more sessions for Prestige, the Craft box collects only the "Cookbook" albums from June 20, September 12, and December 5, 1958. 

The European budget label Solar Records did this years ago, fitting all on only three CDs inluding a bonus LP - Craft limits each CD to the "original album". I will probably buy the Craft boy as I expect excellent sound, but they could have done a real big box and cover it all. At least they added the alternate take from the first session that was on on the OJC reissues. But the three sessions resulted in 34 takes - the box has only 26, missing the equivalent of another LP! Can't they do it right?

Edited December 30, 2022 by mikeweil

[Gheorghe]

15 hours ago, Brad said:

This is one of those gray market releases, not based on the original tapes. According to Discogs, it’s a mixture of Jazzland and Prestige: 

Tough Tenors

Griff and Lock

The Tenor Scene

Live the First Set

Live the Midnight Show

Live the Late Show

Looking at Monk

Blues Up and Down

This one is good, sort of in the same vein: 

Johnny Griffin and Eddie Lockjaw Davis Quitent – At Onkel Po’s Carnegie Hall – NDR Info (N 77046)

Not Davis and Griffin but Davis and Shirley Scott but Craft is issuing this next year:

https://craftrecordings.com/collections/eddie-lockjaw-davis/products/eddie-lockjaw-davis-cookin-with-jaws-and-the-queen-the-legendary-prestige-cookbook-albums-4-cd

Well I didn´t know  from which "market" it is. I purchased it mostly for listening to some two tenor stuff, since here in Viena you find two tenor units quite often since we have very very very good tenorsaxophonists and I love to play with them. 
I had several ocasions to work in such units and the tenorits often called tunes like "In Walked Bud", "Rhythm´a Ning", "Rifftide aka Hackensack" etc. And once when I was not playing I heard two tenorists do "Hey Lock". I didn´t know the tune and asked them what it is so they told me and I wanted to check the arrangement and play it myself. So this was my main reason. So I couldn´t say in my case that I would have looked for the separate albums or the original covers, it was just to get some collection to hear how they do it. 

And I have the "Onkel Po´s Carnegie Hall" also, but there is less tunes were they play together, but it´s hot stuff, no question. 

The things with Shirley Scott I don´t have. I´m not really into organ units. 

I also had the Dizzy Gillespie Big 7 or what it is, as soon as it came out in the 70´s. By the way: "I Remember April" and fast versions of "Lover Come Back to Me" is also really a gym for me. I love to play tunes like that......

[Big Beat Steve]

15 hours ago, mikeweil said:

Craft limits each CD to the "original album". ... Can't they do it right?

Maybe they have their sights set on sales on the Japanese market too - where they seem to prefer CD reissues in the strict format of the original LP contents?

If this was an aspect then it would be to the detriment of collectors elsewhere because this results in rather skimpy playing times per CD. And therefore the claim that this is a "4-CD box" is grossly misleading (even if you assume a CD reissue won't go all the way to the 80-minute limit).

[Gheorghe]

On 12/30/2022 at 6:39 PM, mikeweil said:

 

 

 

The European budget label Solar Records did this years ago, fitting all on only three CDs inluding a bonus LP - Craft limits each CD to the "original album". I will probably buy the Craft boy as I expect excellent sound, but they could have done a real big box and cover it all. At least they added the alternate take from the first session that was on on the OJC reissues. But the three sessions resulted in 34 takes - the box has only 26, missing the equivalent of another LP! Can't they do it right?

Well, now as I had listened to all the 4 CDs and as you write about it, I had to have a short look at the cover though it´s so little print it´s almost impossible to read: 

It has 45 tracks , some are played twice als "live version" or "studio version". Though I know and play almost all the tunes they recorded (with the exception of "Bean" which I must do since it is what I like, a fast tune in Db, and "Hey Lock" which I´m sure I´ll play very soon, with two tenors or if not both available, at least with one of them) . Anyway, it´s easy stuff but ideal for club performances where the audience likes to hear hot stuff with groovy solos. 

About alternative tracks. I rarely listen to them, if they are at the end of a CD I normally stop the player before the alternate takes start. Maybe a red "Tuch" to read for collectors, but if you just want to run thru the tunes it´s that way....

About how many original albums the 4 CD set covers, on the right side of the back cover there is some miniature photos which seem to be original covers, I think it is even 8 albums, I didn´t know there was so many, considering the fact that their colaboration was for short time. I had only seen a "Griffin and Davis" double album in the early 70´s and I think I had thought that it is Griffin with Miles, and later I saw "Looking at Monk" maybe in this forum. Maybe the otheres where not available during the time I bought more records and CD had maybe 10 or 15 or more years yet to be invented. 

[JSngry]

Oh yeah, there's that new one from The Penthouse! 

[Gheorghe]

I had mentioned the tune "Bean" and forgot to state that of course it´s based on the changes of "Stompin´at the Savoy", so it´s a fast line based on that changes, so this is also a nice fast swinging easy tune to blow hot stuff on it. 

[Lazaro Vega]

Didn't know about the MPS album, though they do appear together with the Francy Boland/Kenny Clarke Big Band on a cut called "Griff and Jaws." Putting a radio program together on the Tough Tenors for tonight during Jazz From Blue Lake....10 p.m. - 3 a.m. eastern, with their music in the first part of the hour....www.bluelake.org/listen 

 

[Lazaro Vega]

Didn't know about the MPS album, though they do appear together with the Francy Boland/Kenny Clarke Big Band on a cut called "Griff N Jaw." And the Radio Broadcast (thank you very much) from Copenhagen's Montmartre in 1984 that came out on Storyville as "Tough Tenors back again!" 

Putting a radio program together on the Tough Tenors for tonight during Jazz From Blue Lake....10 p.m. - 3 a.m. eastern, with their music in the first part of the hour....www.bluelake.org/listen 

 

Edited February 9, 2023 by Lazaro Vega